The Omnipotence of God
By Bishop K. F. Smith-1952
We do not trust the Lord because we are not sure of His presence. Trust Him whatever comes or goes. Whatever we see or hear or feel, trust in Him just the same.
I believe in my heart that I love the dear Lord Jesus that the good, the bad, the sweet, the bitter, everything eventually must wring out some blessing. I am not expecting to make it on in, in pleasantness I am anticipating difficulties, disappointments, reverses, but I am believing that my God is going to take everything and wring out some good to me. I am expecting that. If that is fanaticism, Just mark me down, a hopeless fanatic, gone crazy over religion. Because I believe it. If I can leave you with a little of my contagion, if I can transmit my disease to you that you burn with the same fever that runs hot in me, that is my desire. Let us turn to Luke 2:1.
God Who rules the moon, sun and stars; controls the days and the seasons and rules the universe and governs His living children; I am not afraid to commit my way to Him. I am not backward to put my way in Him because He can take the decrees of kings and make them fit.
If you don’t want to pay the price, you don’t have to. If you have anything you want, He won’t take it away from you. The king on the throne is moved by the prayers of God’s people. Prayer in the Holy Ghost can shake the throne of the king; it can shake the mind of the king that rules. He may harden his heart but the saint’s prayers are not in vain.
“The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord and He turns it whithersoever He will as the streams of water.” If he won’t be saved, God will turn his heart for the benefit and praise of the people of God. Lean on Him, trust Him, let Him take control. Let Him heal the incurable disease or take you away to glory. Trust Him to do the thing He sees is best. A sister said one time, “God don’t know I am alive!” Same thing Israel did in the wilderness. But God does know I am alive. He does hear my cry and attends to the voice of my supplication. God hears me. My prayers are not lost. He may not do what I am urging Him to do but He hears my prayers. God deals in a slow way. God knows that I don’t always know what is best. Sometimes He overrules me and I am blessed. When He overrules my desires, it is all right with me for after all He knows best. Can’t you trust Him?
When Caesar sent forth his decree, he did not know that Joseph or Mary were in the world. I believe I ought to trust God when He knows the very hour of delivery. When He can time His machine to the split part of a second and make everything work right in there just where it bought to work to do its little piece and get out of the way and let the other come on. If God knew the very formation of the bones the babe in the womb of a virgin and the time of her delivery and worked out everything, how can anybody say there is no God? How can anybody deny a supreme intelligence? God knows all things and rules all things, just in time to affect Joseph. He figured the distance from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and it was all worked out to His purpose.
If God knows all things, then why can’t I trust Him for my body. Yes, you can trust the Lord if you start praying in time. The question is asked, How come I have to start praying in time?” If you had known, you would have been praying all along the line.
In the case of cancer, when pain shows up, it has gone too far then for treatments or surgery. When God saw the womb of the virgin and the formation of the tiny bones and timed them to the very second and Joseph did not know when he was espoused to Mary, at first, that she was so and Mary didn’t know how it should be. When the angel made the announcement, she wanted to know how. Sometimes a man don’t have to figure. If that be the case, I don’t have to know my affliction. Do I have to know and begin in prayer way back there. There are some quick sensations in my body at times, but none of those things move me. What could I do about it, if I knew what was the matter with me? Yes, a long time ago, I committed the keeping of my soul, and body into the hand of the Lord because He knows my limitation and my God knew then if there is some rage of disease in my body at this present moment and I don’t know it and suddenly it will break out. Whatever is wrong with me, my God knew it a long time ago.
My God doesn’t have to heal me, doesn’t have to make me whole or strong. There is not a man or devil can take my life unless God has something to do with it.
I am invincible, I am unconquerable while God has a work for me to do and I have a willingness to do it. Any God that can do like that, gets my vote. He is my Saviour! I 11 rear back and boast in Him. I may not have any doing power in myself. I am short in understanding and limited in knowledge but I don’t have to have so much while I have a God like that. I don’t have to have much.
Mary was delivered at the very time she should be delivered that the scripture might be fulfilled. To get hold of an ungodly king, who didn’t believe in God, and to bring to pass the thing He wanted to accomplish, why shouldn’t I trust Him.
But where God’s child is concerned, God stops the wicked, He locks the wheels and holds them right there and they can’t move. No matter who it holds up or inconveniences, when my Child is concerned, stop right there.
Joshua commanded the sun to stand still. The enemies of Israel prayed for the sun to go down but God locked the wheels of the machine. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, his life was spared for fifteen years. If I trust the Lord, He can make Stalin do what God wants him to do.
There is no devil can harm me, there is no bullet can take my life; no affliction can hinder my existence; no circumstance however evil it may be in its origin or in its planning whatever venom may be behind it, it can’t hurt me. You might see me in tears but my tears will be good for me. You might find me broken but God wants me to be broken for it is written, “a broken and contrite heart, God will not despise.” It is a blessing in God to be broken, to be contrite. I am not expecting to go through the balance of my days with my face tearless. I will sigh but praise the Lord, I will weep and wipe away my tears and bless the Name of the Lord. I will be heavy hearted over circumstances which will arise over which I have no control but my heavy heart will go to God and He will comfort me. When He has comforted the heavy heart, there will be more woes, but yet He will comfort, and I will trust in Him.
Bishop Karl Francis Smith was born October 4, 1892, in Zanesville, Ohio. At the age of 23, he was saved, then under the Pastorate and tutelage of the late Bishop R. C. Lawson. This was immediately following his having been educated as a Methodist minister. In 1915 Elder Smith married Josephine Anna Jackson, and from that union nine children were born, including two sets of twins. Bishop Lawson left Columbus, Ohio in 1915, but before leaving, he “turned the church over” into the hands of his then assistant pastor, Elder Karl Smith. With a group of twenty-five members, Elder Smith worked, toiled, and endured for fifty-seven years to build and establish one of the great churches of our time, the Church of Christ of the Apostolic Faith. This assembly now boasts a solid membership of close to two-thousand members. Bishop Smith served the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World in many capacities; he was one of its first General Secretaries; was elevated to the Bishopric in 1940; and was the founder and first president of our preparatory school for the ministry, Aenon Bible College. Probably only because of his adamant and staunch belief in higher education does Aenon prevail today. Under many heavy burdens and unceasing criticism did he refuse to bow under the pressure to give up the dream of his institution for higher learning. After a long and successful career as a builder, author, educator, musician, and preacher of the Gospel, he died on Tuesday, January 25, 1972 at the age of 79.
THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS TAKEN FROM EARNEST CONTENDERS FOR THE FAITH BY ELDER JAMES L. TYSON AND PUBLISHED BY PENTECOSTAL PUBLICATIONS, 1982, PAGES 33-36. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
